Eads: Ventura reaching back in its past on March 13

Forgive Ventura High for being sentimental about holding its first track and field invitational in 21 years.

Not only is the school returning to the lineup of Saturday track carnivals on March 13 at Larrabee Stadium, Ventura is reaching out to its past.

Former head coaches Fella Scoggins and Ralph Martinez will be there. So will 1999 state boys' 3,200-meter champion Josh Spiker.

So too could be 1994 section 400-meter champion Ramsey Jay, 1986 Masters high jump champion Richard Thomas and Karl Henke, who held the school shot put record for 46 years.

"We have been fortunate to have had some very good athletes over the years," said Ventura coach Kory Anderson. "We're calling some of the older athletes to come to the meet."

Ventura caught a rare opening in the schedule to get to the starting line as a host.

"We had been trying for the last couple of years to do some kind of championship meet or something," said Anderson. "We couldn't find an open date that wouldn't conflict with what other area schools were already doing."

Moorpark, Royal, Camarillo and Rio Mesa have annually drawn teams from inside Ventura County and out for competitions. So has Carpinteria and the Easter Relays at Santa Barbara City College.

When the Royal Twilight Invitational was canceled, the Ventura coaching staff immediately went to work.

"If we were ever going to do it, now was the time with an open date," said Anderson.

In less than two months, Ventura has drummed interest from 14 to 15 schools bringing 1,200 to 1,500 athletes.

The selling point for the meet is that it's early enough in the season for coaches to get a handle on what their athletes can do.

"For coaches that want to get their athletes qualifying marks for Arcadia and other invitationals, this will be a good time to do it," said Anderson.

Throws coach Fred Morgan and the track program's booster club have worked behind the scenes to help put the meet together.

"We're hoping that this will be a good thing for the community," said Anderson.

Track and field is the No. 1 participatory sport for high school girls in the nation and No. 2 for boys, trailing only football, according to a 2008-09 report by the National Federation of State High School Associations.

"There is tremendous interest in track and field," said Anderson.

Santa Paula on the rise: Whenever Taylor Alvarado dribbled the ball in the open field, there was an excited buzz from her Santa Paula girls' soccer supporters.

Her ability to maintain ball possession as she moves around and pass defenders was one of the reasons that Santa Paula made its deepest playoff run — the Division VI quarterfinals — in program history.

And she wasn't the only one.

"Three or four years ago, we had players with mostly AYSO experience," said Santa Paula coach Jesse Cordova.

The emergence of the Xtreme soccer club has helped to elevate the players' skill levels.

"Eighty percent of our players are from Xtreme and 20 percent from Real California," said Cordova.

Santa Paula will need to bring its game to a higher level next season.

The Frontier League runner-up the last two seasons and Malibu will be promoted to the Tri-Valley League for the next two seasons, switching places with Fillmore and Carpinteria, said Cordova.

"It will be a challenge for the coaches to make sure we bring up the right players to copete at that level," said Cordova.

"I've talked to the players. They know that they will have to work hard in club soccer for the next eight months."